True Destiny: Part 2
by OldWineNewBottles
Summary: Sequel to True Destiny. Now that the Izanami/Izanagi saga is over, the Straw Hat Pirates are once again hot on the trail of Red Hair Shanks, but Luffy begins to question his resolve for whether or not this dangerous voyage is worth the risks. Does he have what it takes to become the true Pirate King and protect the one he loves? LuffyXNami
1. Chapter 1: The Pirate King

**Chapter 1**

**The Pirate King**

Luffy rolled over in his hammock for what seemed to be the millionth time that night. He couldn't sleep. It had been like this for days now. Never before in his life did he have trouble sleeping. Next to eating and adventuring, sleeping was his favorite thing to do. He didn't even know what was keeping him up. Or maybe he did know and just didn't want to take the time to think it through.

It was nearing dawn anyway so Luffy swung his legs over the side of his hammock and stood up. He looked around at his bunkmates. Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Chopper, and Franky were all snoozing away like they didn't have a care in the world. They looked so comfortable. Luffy wished that he could be that comfortable. He frowned and exited the room as quietly as he could so as not to wake up his crew.

Once on deck, Luffy heard Brook strumming on his guitar as usual. Brook never really slept because he didn't need it. Then an idea struck Luffy. Maybe he should ask Brook about his little sleeping problem. Since Brook didn't need to sleep, maybe the skeleton could offer some insight as to what might be keeping Luffy awake.

To most people Luffy's line of logic didn't really make sense but it was perfectly sensible to him as he climbed the ropes up to Brook's favorite spot on the main mast.

"Hey, Brook!" Luffy greeted cheerfully as he settled himself down on the mast.

"Captain!" Brook answered just as cheerfully. He stopped playing for a moment. "Hm, you're up quite early."

Luffy nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't sleep."

"Really?" Brook asked putting a hand under his boney chin. "That is most unusual."

"Actually I haven't been able to sleep for the past few days," Luffy said with a sigh. He scratched his head. "And I don't even know what's keeping me up."

"Hm, well, back when I was flesh and blood, there was a time when I found myself in your situation," Brook said and began strumming his guitar again.

"Really?" Luffy asked. "What was the reason?"

"Ah, it was long ago, my captain," Brook sang as he changed his strumming to a more nostalgic chord progression. "It was back when I was a young man not much older than yourself."

Luffy looked wide-eyed at Brook completely absorbed in what the skeleton had to say.

"Verily I tell you, when I was but six and twenty, I found myself in a most extraordinary position."

"What position?"

"Ah! A position of conflict, my friend!" Brook said dramatically. "I was already a pirate for quite a few years by then and I thought that nothing would be able to tear me away from the sea. It was my home, and my crewmates were my family."

"Yeah, like our crew," Luffy said with a nod.

"Precisely," Brook answered. "But I then discovered something that I had not found before. Something very valuable. More valuable than any treasure or amount of money."

"What was it?" Luffy asked.

Brook dramatically stopped his strumming and looked Luffy in the eye. "Love, my boy. Love."

Luffy tilted his head to the side as he stared confusedly at the musician. "Love?" he repeated.

"Yes!" Brook cried dramatically as he resumed his strumming. "The first woman I fell in love with, Isabel. Oh, I still yet remember the fair maiden. She had stolen my heart, back when I had one anyway. It was then that I first thought of leaving the sea and starting my own family."

"Wow, I had no idea you wanted to start a family, Brook," Luffy said in amazement.

"I did indeed," Brook said looking up at the fading stars. "But alas, after many sleepless nights, I chose the sea over my dear Isabel. I felt as though my destiny had not yet been fulfilled and so I left that island with my crew, never to return again."

"That's…so sad!" Luffy sniffed. He always tended to get overly emotionally involved in other people's stories.

"I must say that I often wonder what my life would've been like had I chosen to stay with her," Brook said pausing in his strumming again. "I wouldn't have eaten the Revive fruit for one thing which in turn would have meant that I wouldn't have met you and the others, but still…" The skeleton trailed off and looked down at the guitar in his boney hands.

"Well, I'm glad that I met you," Luffy said enthusiastically.

Brook laughed but not in his usual way. "Why, thank you, Captain," he said with a smile. "But enough about me! What about you? Is something bothering you so that you are unable to sleep?"

"Yeah," Luffy said. "But I'm not even sure what it is."

"Perhaps your dilemma is the same as mine was," Brook suggested.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"I mean, would the reason you are unable to sleep be a certain red haired navigator currently residing on our ship?"

Luffy stared blankly at Brook, and a moment of silence fell heavily upon the two.

Brook broke the silence with an exasperated sigh and then bonked Luffy on the head with his guitar. "That's Nami, you idiot!" he shouted.

"Ow ow ow!" Luffy whined as he rubbed his head. "That hurt!"

"Yohoho!" Brook laughed. "Sometimes it takes a hard hit to get through a hard head. But that is beside the point!" The skeleton leaned closer to Luffy. "You care for Nami a great deal, do you not?"

"Of course I do!" Luffy said. "I care about all of my friends!"

"Ah, but you and Miss Nami are more than just friends."

Luffy thought back to the crew's last big adventure. Nami had found that she had had the spirit of Izanami, the goddess of the sea, inside her, and the god of the sun, Izanagi, had wanted to kill her to free the goddess. In the end, the gods allowed for both Nami to live and for Izanami and Izanagi to be united once a year.

It was during that time that Luffy realized he did have feelings beyond friendship for Nami. He had never felt so happy when he spent time with her or so desperate when Izanagi took her away from him. He had never been angrier in his life when he saw Izanagi with Nami on the cliff and, although he was usually reckless, he had never acted so rashly as he did when he jumped off the cliff after Nami into the deadly waters below. From that time forward, he knew that Nami was something special to him. Maybe Brook was right. Maybe the reason why he couldn't sleep was because of her.

It had been almost a year since the Izanagi-Izanami adventure. The Straw Hats had returned Nojiko, Nami's older foster sister, back to Cocoyashi and then they had set sail for the Grand Line once again. Their goal was to find Red Hair Shanks, Luffy's old mentor that had given him his prized straw hat. Shanks had told Luffy that once Luffy became Pirate King, he should come find him to return the hat, and Luffy intended to do just that. The only problem was that Shanks was rumored to have been killed by the legendary Colossal Sea King, but Luffy refused to believe it. The rest of the Straw Hat pirates trusted their captain, so even though their mission seemed futile, they all followed Luffy no matter what.

Luffy and Nami's relationship didn't extend too far beyond what they already had. Nami had always been the one Luffy went to when he had a problem or if he was just bored and wanted to bother her. She always made him feel better. He loved making her laugh and he even loved it when she became angry and bonked him on the head, which she did often. It didn't matter to him, though. The two made a great team, and everyone knew it.

The only difference was that sometimes the two would share special moments when they weren't around the others. Sometimes they would hold hands or even cuddle a little bit, but besides that they acted exactly how they used to act around each other, and that's the way they both wanted it to be, at least until now.

Lately, Luffy had noticed that every time he and Nami had a moment alone, he wanted to do more than just hold hands. The two had never kissed before, and Luffy found himself wanting to do exactly that with his redheaded navigator, but every time he had wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't even know why. Was it because he was afraid?

Luffy shook his head. He was the goddamn Pirate King! He wasn't afraid of anything, or at least he felt that he shouldn't be.

"Yohohohoho! Your prolonged silence has spoken volumes, my captain!" Brook laughed. "It seems I've hit the nail on the head!"

"Oi!"

The two looked down to see their cyborg shipwright calling up to them. "What are you two doing up there?" Franky called.

A huge smile broke on Luffy's face. "Nothing much!" he called back and waved.

"Well, you should come down," Franky said. "Sanji's almost done with breakfast!"

"FOOD!" Luffy shouted for joy and immediately hopped off the mast.

"Yohoho!" Brook laughed again and then elegantly slid down one of the sail ropes to the deck.

The sun had risen above the horizon, and a delicious smell wafted throughout the ship. The men were all eager to the have some breakfast and were already at the table. Sanji came out of the kitchen with plates upon plates of food.

"Eh?" he said stopping.

"What's wrong, Sanji?" Usopp said waving a fork in the air. "Bring over the food!"

"Yeah! The food!" Chopper repeated also waving his fork in the air.

"You idiots," Sanji said. "I'm not serving you until Nami-san and Robin-chan are here."

As if on cue, the door opened and in walked the two ladies of the ship. "Good morning, everyone!" Nami greeted happily as she slid into her usual seat next to Luffy.

For some reason Luffy felt his body go stiff. Nami usually sat next to him for meals so this shouldn't have been any different, but now that he had talked to Brook about it, he felt a little squirmish and uncomfortable.

Nami didn't seem to notice.

"Good morning, Nami-swan!" Sanji sang. "Good morning, Robin-chwan!"

"Good morning," Robin said as she too sat down in her seat between Chopper and Zoro. "I see you've all waited for us again."

"You girls are always so slow," Zoro said crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall. "If you were here on time we wouldn't have had to wait."

"Don't talk like that to Robin-chan!" Sanji shouted his eyes flashing at the swordsman.

"Maybe we're slow because we want to make you wait," Nami said smugly.

Zoro frowned at Nami but said nothing.

"At any rate, let's have some breakfast," Robin said with a laugh.

"Of course, Robin-chwan!" Sanji sang as he laid out a beautiful plate of food in front of her and another in front of Nami. For the men, he placed down several plates of food from which they could just grab what they wanted. "Bon appetit!"

Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Franky, Brook, and Chopper all began to dig in to their shared plates like ravenous hyenas while the two ladies ate from their individual plates.

"Delicious as always, Sanji-kun!" Nami complimented the cook with a laugh.

Sanji's eyes turned into hearts at the compliment. "Ahahaha! Anything for you, Nami-swan!"

Luffy suddenly stopped eating and glanced from Nami to Sanji and then back to Nami again. Sanji always did and said things like that for any pretty girl that he happened to come across. It never bothered Luffy before when Sanji would try to win Nami's affections or even try to kiss her but for some reason it bothered him now.

"Is everything all right, Luffy?" Nami asked noticing that he had stopped eating. His cheeks were even full of food, but he hadn't swallowed yet.

Luffy quickly gulped down the food in his mouth. "Yeah! Everything's fine!" he said and quickly turned back to eating more food.

Nami raised an eyebrow but said no more.

"With all the cyclones, sea monsters, bounty hunters, Marines, and other pirates, I'm glad that we at least have the luxury of good food on board!" Usopp said once he was full. He leaned back and patted his stomach completely satisfied.

"Yeah, but even so, it's been so long since we've had a moment's peace to actually sit down and eat together like this," Chopper said. "We're so deep in the Grand Line now. Anything could happen at any moment!"

"It's ok, Chopper," Robin said with a smile. "We're getting closer and closer every day to finding Shanks. It can't be long now."

Chopper nodded his head.

"At any rate," Franky said standing up, "we should probably head out to our posts. Who knows when a storm or an enemy ship could pop up."

"Right!" the others agreed.

As everyone got up to leave, Nami quickly grabbed Luffy's hand holding him back. No one seemed to notice, and soon the two were alone.

"Is everything ok?" Nami asked worriedly.

"Hm? Everything's fine," Luffy said again.

Nami looked him in the eye and frowned. "Well, if you say so," she said. "You just seem a little off this morning."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" Nami shook her head. "Never mind," she finally said. She stood up and made her way to the door.

Luffy watched as she exited the room, and the door swung shut behind her. In reality, he had wanted to talk to her about what was bothering him. He always had in the past and he had no secrets from her. The two of them talked about everything, even if it wasn't the deepest topics. She was just the kind of person Luffy felt like he didn't need to hold anything back from.

Luffy sighed and got up. Maybe everything Brook had said was right. Maybe he was in similar dilemma. He put a hand on his chest and felt his heart beat. It was slow and steady now but it had been fast and irregular when Nami had touched his hand. Love was something he had had no prior experience with. The thought of starting a family had never even crossed his mind. The only time he had ever talked about marriage was when he had rejected Boa Hancock's marriage proposal, and that was it.

Now that he was older, the prospect of love and marriage was more applicable to him. He had always had a special place in his heart for Nami but now he was beginning to realize that what he felt did go beyond just friendship.

On the other hand, he had made a promise to Shanks that he would find him and return his hat once he had become King of the Pirates. If he wanted to keep sailing around the Grand Line looking for Shanks and keep the title of Pirate King, there was no way he could get married let alone start a family. Besides, there was also something else that had been bothering him.

Back when they had first met Nagi, the sun god had said that Luffy was the Pirate King by name only, that he wasn't truly the Pirate King that Gold Roger was. Luffy had the One Piece. Not only that, he was also the strongest, most feared, and richest pirate in all the seas. He also had a record bounty on his head. Weren't all those things enough for him to be the true Pirate King?

Luffy shook his head. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew that there was something missing. Something that Gold Roger had that he didn't.

And Nami…she was the greatest navigator and cartographer known to man. She was brave, intelligent, strong, and beautiful. Not only that, she had been the chosen vessel for Izanami, goddess of the sea. No man would ever be good enough for her except the true Pirate King.

He clenched his fist. There was no way he could even think about asking Nami to marry him if he wasn't worthy of her, and right now he knew he wasn't. In order to become the true Pirate King, he would need some advice. The hat!

Luffy quickly ran out the door and then down to the bunkroom where he kept all of his things. There was a captain's cabin, but Luffy chose not to sleep there since he wanted to be with his crew. Even though he was captain and sometimes used that authority on the ship to make decisions, he didn't feel that he was above any of his crewmates. They were a family and that's how he wanted it to be.

Once in the room, Luffy pulled out the dusty, old captain's hat that was the fabled One Piece. With a deep breath, he put the hat on his head.

"What now?" Gold Roger's gruff voice sounded in Luffy's head.

"Gold Roger," Luffy said firmly, "I want to ask you something."

Roger's voice seemed to sigh in annoyance at the request. "Lad, ye just interrupted me sight-seeing tour," he said. "It's so bloomin' annoying that me spirit gets sucked back into this damn hat every time ye put it on."

"Am I really the Pirate King?" Luffy asked ignoring Roger's complaints.

Roger didn't respond immediately but slowly began to laugh. "AHAHAHA!" he guffawed like a maniac. "Who told ye to doubt yerself, eh?"

Luffy frowned. "So it's true then?"

"Eh, I'm not saying it's one way or the other," Roger said.

Even though Luffy couldn't see Roger's face, he knew the old pirate's spirit was enjoying Luffy's frustration.

"Lad, being the Pirate King is more than just having me hat," Roger continued. "Ye've got to have the strength and the will to back it up."

"But I am strong!" Luffy said making his hands into fists.

"I don't doubt yer physical strength," Roger said, "but that's not what I'm talking about."

"Well, what are you talking about?"

"Lad, there's a lot of things in this world that go beyond the physical realm," Roger said. "Ye had a small encounter with that before, haven't ye? That navigator of yers showed ye something that no one besides ye and yer crew have ever seen."

Luffy didn't respond but only because he was confused and didn't know how to respond. A big question mark formed above the young captain's head.

"The deities, you idiot!" Roger roared after a moment of silence. "Shiver me timbers! Yer not the sharpest tool in the shed, eh?"

"Oh, you mean Nagi?"

"More than that," Roger said in a calmer tone of voice. "The spirit realm. If someone can reach into that realm from the physical world, that would be what I would call true strength. And only I've been able to do it! Ahahaha!"

"Oh, I get it!" Luffy said hitting a fist onto the palm of his hand. "You were able to attach your spirit to this hat. That's reaching into the spirit realm, right?"

"So ye figured out that much, eh?" Roger said sarcastically. "I wanted me legacy to live on forever and overcome the so called fate the gods have set fer each of us, and the only way to do it was to find a way to keep me spirit in this realm instead of going to heaven or hell or what have ye. By manipulating the spirits, I was able to fulfill me wish!"

"So how do I reach into the spirit realm?"

"I could tell you how I did it, but then that wouldn't really help ye," Roger said. "Ye've got to find yer own way, otherwise ye won't succeed."

"Huh…" Luffy said feeling that he hadn't made as much progress to finding out what he was supposed to do as he thought he would.

"Well, chat time's over," Roger said. "I best be getting back to me tour."

"Oh, ok," Luffy said knowing that there was nothing else he could get out of the former Pirate King's spirit.

With that, Gold Roger's spirit vanished leaving Luffy with nothing but a beat up old hat.

"The spirit realm, huh?" Luffy said to himself.

"LUFFY!" Usopp yelled down into the bunkroom.

"What's up, Usopp?" Luffy called back up and waved.

"We've got trouble!"

As if on cue, the ship began to tilt violently from one side to the other.

"A storm?" Luffy asked as he put his straw hat back on.

"Yeah!" Usopp said. "You'd better come up quick! Nami's going crazy!"

Luffy sprinted up the stairs and onto the deck. It was pouring rain and lightening was flashing across the sky at an alarming rate. When Luffy had first gone down into the men's cabin room, it had been a perfectly sunny day without a single cloud in the sky, but storms like this one were common in the Grand Line.

"Luffy! Where've you been?" Nami yelled at him.

"Uh-"

"Get over to the mast and help Zoro!" she continued to yell before Luffy could respond.

Luffy nodded and ran to help his first mate.

"Geez," Nami said shielding her eyes from the rain. She had managed to navigate them away from the main part of the storm, but it was so large and so sudden that they were still caught in the tail end of it. "Franky, we need more power!" she shouted.

"I know! I know!" Franky shouted back. The shipwright was furiously pushing buttons on a control panel while grasping onto the helm.

"We're gonna die!" Chopper sobbed as he clung onto Nami's leg.

"No, we're not!" Nami yelled and bonked the small reindeer on the head.

"Ow!"

"You always say that every time we hit a storm! Don't you have any faith in me?"

"I…I do! It's just these storms are scary!" Chopper cried.

Nami sighed and then patted his head. "Yeah, they sure are," Nami said. "Sorry for hitting you."

"It's ok."

Suddenly a huge gust of wind swept across the ship practically lifting everyone off their feet.

"AHH!" Nami and Chopper screamed together. Then they felt themselves get held down.

Robin had sprouted her devil arms around everyone on the ship making sure that they didn't fall into a watery grave.

"Thanks, Robin!" Nami called.

Robin smiled calmly and nodded in response.

"Ok," Nami said. "We just need to hold on a little longer, and the storm should be ending soon!"

Almost as if it had been planned, the rain, winds, and lightening ceased as suddenly as they had sprung up. All was calm.

"Whew!" Usopp said wiping some rain out of his eyes. "That was a pretty fierce storm."

"You're telling me!" Franky said as he began running around the ship surveying the damage. "My poor baby!"

"The further we get into the Grand Line the worse the storms will get," Sanji said also wiping rainwater off of his face. "If Shanks is really out there somewhere, then this isn't even the worst one we'll be seeing."

"Unfortunately he's right," Zoro said crossing his arms. "Luffy, are you absolutely sure that Shanks is still alive?"

"Of course he is!" Luffy insisted.

"We've only heard that his crew is still here in the Grand Line," Zoro said. "Everything about Shanks himself is says he's dead."

Luffy shook his head. "Nope, it's not true," he said lightly. "If he was dead, I'd know it."

Zoro looked at his captain and then shrugged his shoulders content with his answer.

"Where to now?" Usopp asked Nami.

Nami had been studying her previous maps that she had drawn of the Grand Line. "Well, we got a little off course," she said tracing their path with her finger. "The fastest way to the New World is to turn 73 degrees south by southeast."

"Then that's what we'll do," Luffy said with a determined look.

"Aye!"


	2. Chapter 2: An Old Acquaintance

**Chapter 2**

**An Old Acquaintance**

As the Thousand Sunny sailed ever closer to the second half of the Grand Line, the Straw Hat Pirates couldn't help but think about the last time they had entered it. It had been a frightening and trying experience, but in the end they had triumphed over the seas and reached the distant island of Raftel on which Luffy obtained the One Piece. Since they had conquered it once, they were pretty confident that they could conquer it again.

"You know, I can't help but think about what that one guy said…" Usopp whispered with a shudder.

"What guy?" Franky asked.

"Gekko Moriah," Usopp said. "Remember? Captain of the Thriller Bark?"

"Oh yeah," Franky said with a nod. "What about him?"

"He said that the New World was a place that one would lose everything he cherished," Usopp said with a gulp.

The crew looked out into the murky fog that had surrounded them with renewed somberness.

Luffy couldn't help but glance at Nami upon hearing Usopp's foreboding words. Everything he cherished. The things he cared most about were his hat and his friends, and now that he realized that Nami was more than just a friend, he couldn't bear the thought of losing her. Maybe they shouldn't go into the New World…

Luffy shook his head. He was the King of the Pirates, wasn't he? Or at least he had the One Piece. That was proof that they had been able to sail into the New World and out again before. Why was he so worried about going in now?

"Oi, Luffy," Zoro said breaking the rubber man's train of thought. "You're spacing out."

"Hm?" Luffy said.

Zoro raised an eyebrow and frowned. He knew Luffy better than anyone, except for maybe Nami. Even though Luffy was always spacey and hard to read, Zoro knew that there was something that was bothering him now.

"Good thing we still have the New World Log Pose," Nami said trying to lighten the mood. She glanced down at the magnetic compass with a smile. "So long as we have this, we shouldn't have any trouble finding our way."

"I don't think that's what we're worried about, Nami," Usopp said.

"What if we get attacked by a monster?" Chopper said shakily. "It's really scary here!"

"Well at least we don't have to worry about Sea Kings," Sanji offered. "Luckily Luffy can talk to them so as long as he doesn't say anything stupid, we should be fine."

"In any case, we should keep going until we reach an island," Robin said serenely seemingly unaffected by the ominous fog.

"Right," Franky agreed. "Don't fret so much, Chopper. There's no use in worrying about something that hasn't happened yet."

The small reindeer nodded but was still shaky.

"Perhaps a song would cheer us up!" Brook suggested as he pulled out his guitar.

"That would be great!" Usopp said excitedly. "Come on, Luffy! Brook's gonna play us a song…" The long-nosed sharpshooter trailed off once he realized Luffy wasn't paying attention. "Luffy?"

Nami looked over at her captain and sighed. She had been right to think that there was something bothering him. Ever since they had gotten close to the New World, Luffy had been acting strangely, especially around her. Then a thought hit Nami making her frown.

Since the day when she had noticed that he had been a little off, the two of them had stopped spending time together without the others. They had stopped holding hands and doing all the couple stuff that they had been doing. At first Nami had just thought that it was because things had gotten busier since they were sailing through the Grand Line but now she was beginning to think that it might have something to do with how Luffy felt about her.

What if Luffy didn't like her that way after all? She was starting to think that that must be the case. Maybe, after a year of sort of being a couple, Luffy realized that he didn't see her as more than just a good friend, and this was his way of hinting it to her.

She sighed at the thought. She hadn't exactly gotten overly emotionally attached to him at that point, especially since they hadn't really made it official that they were together. At the same time, she had to admit that she did care about him in a way that was different from the others.

Suddenly, Nami felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Robin standing next to her.

"Nami," Robin said with a smile.

"Oh, hi, Robin," Nami said attempting to return the smile.

"Are you worried about something?"

"Uh, nope! Everything's fine!" Nami laughed.

Robin took Nami's arm and turned her so that the two women were faced away from the rest of the crew. "You know you can always talk to me, Nami," Robin said in a motherly tone.

Nami looked at her dark-haired friend and sighed. "I know," she said. "I am worried, but not about the mission or anything."

"I know," Robin said.

"It's just…" Nami glanced back to make sure the guys weren't listening in. Luckily Brook had started to play a song and the others were all looking livelier as they listened to the music. "It's about Luffy."

Robin nodded. "He has been acting strangely, hasn't he?"

"Yeah," Nami said. "I'm beginning to think that…he and I aren't going to, you know, have anything beyond just a friendship."

"Oh, Nami," Robin laughed and patted her head. "You care about him a lot, don't you?"

Nami nodded. "Well, yeah, I do…"

"He cares about you just as much, if not more," Robin said. "The way he looks at you, the way he talks to you and seeks you out for companionship, it's obvious that he cares very deeply for you. He may even be in love with you."

"In love?" Nami asked in shock.

Robin laughed again. "I said he may," she said. "It could be hard for you to see it, but to the rest of us, it's quite clear."

"But ever since we started getting closer to the New World, he's sort of been avoiding me," Nami said.

"He's probably worried about you," Robin said. "Maybe he's distancing himself from you now because he's thinking about your future together."

Nami raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

"He might be wondering if it's actually a good idea to put everyone in danger to find Shanks."

That made Nami laugh. "What? Luffy's constantly putting all of us in danger," she said with a wave of her hand. "What makes this time any different?"

"Oh, I don't know," Robin said with a shrug. "People who are in love tend to become overly protective. Perhaps he feels so strongly that he wants to protect you that he's conflicted about finding Shanks versus keeping you safe."

"Really?" Nami asked and glanced over at Luffy. She quickly averted her gaze.

"I'm only guessing," Robin said. "I'm not exactly an expert in matters of love, but you and Luffy are two of my closest friends, and both of you are easier to read than a good book." She laughed.

"Am I really that easy to read?" Nami wondered.

Robin nodded. "But don't worry," she said. "Luffy's a bit oblivious when it comes to reading people."

"Hey, I see something!" Chopper called out to the group as he pointed a hoof over the starboard side of the ship.

"It's an island!" Usopp confirmed after looking through his binoculars.

"An island? Already?" Nami looked at the Log Pose. It had changed directions since the last time she had looked at it. She sighed. Navigating in normal seas was no problem for her, and even in the first half of the Grand Line it wasn't so bad, but she remembered from the last time they had gone into the New World, navigating there was a nightmare even for her. Then Nami realized something. "Hey, guys!" she said.

The crew looked up at her as she held up the Log Pose.

"Looks like we've finally made it to the New World," she announced happily.

"How do you know?" Franky asked.

"When islands start popping up out of nowhere, that's a pretty good sign you're there," Nami said with a laugh.

"Ok," Usopp said with a nod. "Now all we have to do is to see if anyone lives on the island, gather supplies, and ask about Shanks."

"Right," Sanji agreed. "Hopefully someone will know something useful."

Although the Log Pose was acting erratically and the fog became thicker the closer they got to shore, Nami was able to guide the ship to the island without too much trouble. Before long the ship was anchored at the shore of the island. Nami didn't recognize it as one they had been to before on their previous journey to the New World, so the crew prepared themselves to explore new territory. If no one was there, at least they hoped to find food and fresh water.

"We should probably have more than just Franky guard the ship," Robin said as they were preparing to disembark.

"What? I'll be fine!" Franky insisted. "I'm strong enough to handle things even in the Grand Line."

Robin smiled but shook her head. "It's not a matter of your strength. We should just be extra careful now that we're back in the New World."

"Yeah," Chopper agreed. "What if a storm comes by while we're gone?"

"I suppose…"

"Why don't you guys go ahead while Chopper and I stay with Franky," Nami suggested quickly.

The crew all looked at her in surprise. Normally, Nami would always go on the islands so that she could gather the data she needed to draw her map. Her suggestion to stay on the ship was completely unexpected.

Luffy couldn't help but frown. He was oblivious most of the time, but not that oblivious. He and Robin were the only other two that always went on the exploration team any time they visited an island they hadn't been to before. Maybe Nami wanted to stay on the ship to avoid being with him.

In fact, that was exactly what Nami was doing. What Robin had said about Luffy possibly being in love with her both excited and scared her at the same time. Luffy obviously wanted space since he had been avoiding her for the past few weeks, and in all truthfulness, she also wanted some space as well. Maybe spending some time away from him completely would do her good.

Robin glanced from her captain to the navigator with a knowing smile. "That sounds like a good idea, Nami," she said breaking the awkward silence that had fallen upon the crew. "I'm sure the three of you can handle anything that might come up."

"Oi, Nami," Usopp said as he put a hand under his chin looking at her with suspicion. "Don't you want to go exploring? I mean, you do want to keep drawing your maps, right?" Although he had no basis for it, he couldn't help but think she was up to something mischievous. In his experience, she more often than not did things for reasons that would mean screwing over someone else. Although Usopp and Nami were great friends and did trust each other, he knew that one of Nami's specialties was to manipulate situations, and that he was often the target of her games.

"Of course I want to keep drawing my maps, Usopp," Nami said with a wave of her hand. "It's just with all the weather changes and being back in the New World, I'm feeling a little tired. That's all." She smiled sweetly at the sharpshooter knowing that it would make him even more suspicious. Even if she was worried about Luffy, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to toy with Usopp's head.

Usopp frowned but couldn't think of anything to say.

"We should be heading off then," Zoro said impatiently. "If Nami doesn't want to go then that's her choice."

"Shall I stay with you, Nami-swan?" Sanji asked chivalrously.

"Don't worry about me, Sanji-kun," Nami said with a smile. "Franky and Chopper will be here. If there aren't any inhabitants on the island, then we'll all be relying on you to pick out the edible plants and animals for food."

"Let's go," Luffy said shortly before Sanji could reply. With that he lowered the gangplank and walked off the ship.

"What's with him?" Sanji asked.

"Don't worry about it," Zoro said and followed Luffy down the gangplank.

The exploration team managed to get pretty far into the island despite the ever-thickening fog. So far they had not seen anything that would suggest human inhabitants. The only living things they saw were the scant vegetation, some birds, and a few small, eyeless lizards that scurried about through the fog relying on smell and heat sensing to find their destinations.

"I am beginning to think that this island is completely uninhabited," Brook mused as the group stopped to figure out which way would be best to go. The rocky landscape speckled with the few trees here and there was all beginning to look the same. Luckily Robin had a good sense of direction, so the rest of the crew knew they would be able to make it back to the ship.

"It seems that way," Robin said crossing her arms. "If we can't find anyone here then we at least need to find food and water. Sanji?"

"These trees aren't really good for anything," the cook said with a sigh as he poked at one with his foot. "They don't even have fruit. I'm not sure if those blind lizards are edible either."

"We haven't come across any water either," Zoro said. "Maybe we should just leave and find another island."

"We don't know how long it will take for the Log Pose to reset," Robin said. "And it's been quite a few days since we last restocked our supplies. We wouldn't want to risk running out of food or water, especially here in the New World."

"Wait, I think I hear something!" Brook said suddenly and put a boney hand to his ear.

"What is it?" Usopp asked also putting his hand up to his ear.

"I believe that is the sound of running water, my comrades!" Brook sang happily. "Perhaps there is a fresh water deposit here!"

"Let's get going, then," Zoro said. "Luffy?"

The rubber captain had wandered a bit away from the group. He didn't even seem to be terribly interested in the fact that they had just discovered running water.

"Seriously, what's wrong with him?" Sanji said as he lit a cigarette. "He's definitely not himself."

"Yeah," Usopp agreed. "Usually he's excited about exploring new islands and making discoveries, but now it's like he's in a world of his own."

Zoro sighed and walked toward Luffy. "Oi, Luffy," he said as he put a hand on his shoulder. "Snap out of it, will ya?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, Zoro," Luffy said.

That caught the swordsman off guard. Luffy usually wasn't so apologetic either. Zoro frowned and then put his other hand on Luffy's other shoulder and began to violently shake him. "What's wrong with you?" he said.

"Hey, Zoro! Stop it!" Luffy huffed as he squirmed out of Zoro's grip. "I'm fine! Geez, you didn't have to do that."

"Then stop spacing out," Zoro said flatly. "We're all here because you want to find Shanks. The least you could do is be a little more involved in what we're doing."

Luffy frowned but said nothing. He knew Zoro was right. Why was he getting so distracted anyway? Well, usually he would get distracted, but by different things like interesting animals and plants, or whatever was strange and out of the ordinary. Now he was distracted by his own thoughts. "You're right," Luffy finally said as he adjusted the straw hat on his head. "Let's go find some food and water."

Zoro nodded and the two ran to catch up to the rest of the group.

Back on the Thousand Sunny, Nami sat in her room staring blankly at the Log Pose in front of her waiting to see when it would change again. Since they had never been to or heard of this island, she had no idea when the Log Pose would reset or even when the island would disappear and then reappear somewhere else. Hopefully it wouldn't disappear while the rest of her crewmates were still on shore.

She sighed and looked down at a rough sketch of the island she had drawn up. Because she hadn't gone with the exploration team, she couldn't fill in details or even what the other side of the island looked like but at that moment she didn't mind. The other things racing through her head were more important.

"Nami."

Nami sat up straight in surprise and then looked down to see a worried reindeer looking up at her. "Oh, what's up, Chopper?" she said with a smile.

"Are you feeling ok?" Chopper asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Nami said. "Just a little tired."

"I mean, both you and Luffy are acting strange," Chopper said.

Nami laughed and waved her hand. "Oh, don't worry about that," she said. "Luffy's probably thinking about how to find Shanks. Now that we're in the New World again, it can't be long before we find him."

"But then why is he acting like he's not happy?" Chopper asked as he hopped up onto the empty chair next to Nami.

Nami shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows?" she said as casually as she could. "Maybe he's beginning to doubt whether Shanks is really still alive or not."

Chopper shook his head. "There's no way he'd doubt himself," he said. "Luffy's not that kind of person."

Nami looked at Chopper and raised an eyebrow. She knew that he wanted to ask about her and Luffy, not Shanks.

"I mean," Chopper said as he looked down, "if you don't want to talk about it, then I understand. I'm just worried…"

"Oh, Chopper," Nami said and put a hand on his head. "I'm sorry for worrying you."

The reindeer looked up again.

"Luffy and I…well, I'm not even sure what's going on between us myself," Nami said as she put her hand under her chin. "I feel like maybe I'm distracting him from his goal to find Shanks. Maybe he just needs some time away from me so he can get back on track."

"Maybe," Chopper said. "But he looked like he really wanted you to come with him to explore the island."

Nami looked surprised.

"I mean, he got upset when he walked off the ship, right?" Chopper said quickly.

"I guess so."

"Oi! You two! Better come out here!" they heard Franky call.

"Oh no!" Chopper said jumping off the chair.

"I hope it's not something bad," Nami said.

The two exited the room and ran out on deck.

"What's wrong, Franky?" Nami called. The fog was so thick now she could hardly make out the cyborg's outline even though he was only a few feet in front of her.

"Looks like we have some visitors," Franky said. Luckily his cyborg eye could somewhat see through the fog.

Nami and Chopper ran over to the railing and tried to see what Franky was pointing at.

"I don't see anything," Chopper said looking up at Franky.

"They're still pretty far away," Franky said. "They don't look like they've seen us either."

"Maybe we should take down the flag," Nami said hesitantly. "Just for now. I mean, they'd probably recognize that we're the Straw Hat Pirates and then they might start attacking."

"Or they might get scared and run away," Chopper said.

"I doubt they'd run away," Franky said. "If they made it into the New World, they're probably pretty strong." He turned to face the other two. "Let's take down the flag. Maybe they're friendly and are just stopping by this island because they need supplies too. We wouldn't want any unnecessary violence on account of our reputation."

Nami and Chopper nodded, then Nami immediately made her way over to the main mast and started pulling on the rope that was attached to their flag. She laughed to herself as she thought about what Luffy would say if he saw her doing this. Most likely, he wouldn't understand the reasoning behind taking the flag down and insist upon putting it back up. His pirate pride would be hurt if they took it down in front of him.

"Should we prepare the ship for an attack?" Chopper asked Franky.

"Already have," the cyborg answered. "All we can do now is wait and hope they're not looking for a fight."

The exploration team made it to the source of the sound Brook had heard. To their luck, it was a running stream of fresh water. There were even fish in it.

"We should follow it upstream," Sanji said. "There has to be a lake of some sort. There'll be more fish for us to catch there."

"Right," Usopp said with a nod. "We're really lucky this island has fresh water."

"We certainly are," Robin said as she filled her canteen.

Zoro and Sanji had each filled up the huge water containers they had brought but lifted them with ease.

"Let's get going," Zoro said. "The sooner we get food, the sooner we can go back to the ship."

"Yes, this fog is starting to get to me," Brook said.

"But didn't you live in fog for a long time before we found you?" Sanji asked.

"I did indeed. But this fog makes me feel nervous for some reason. Like something terrible is going to happen."

"S-s-stop talking like that," Usopp said with an uneasy laugh. "Nothing bad's going to happen, right?"

"Who knows?" Brook said dramatically. "The fog covers all. There may be some frightening creature watching our every move, and we wouldn't even know it was there until it was too late. Yohoho!"

"Aiyee!" Usopp turned green with fear and his knees began to shake.

"Brook, now might not be the best time to be saying such things," Robin said. "We need to make sure Usopp can get to the lake and fish us some food before his courage runs out."

"What?! My courage doesn't run out!" Usopp said straightening up again. "I'm not afraid! Hahaha!"

"Then why are your knees still shaking?" Zoro mocked.

Usopp frowned but then started walking up stream. "I'm just excited! That's all! Everyone, follow me!"

Robin laughed to herself knowing that what she had said made Usopp face his fears and keep going further into the island.

The group soon came upon a large lake at the base of a mountain. A waterfall could be heard in the distance, but since the fog was so thick, it wasn't visible. Sanji had been right to think that more fish would be in the lake, and Usopp had no problem firing off his net bullets to catch them. Soon they had enough to last them at least a few weeks. Usopp and Luffy took up the nets and hoisted them on their backs.

"Now we can head back, right?" Usopp said with a hint of anxiousness in his voice.

"I suppose," Robin said. "You boys are all right?"

"Aye."

"Then let's get going," she said. "We wouldn't want to keep the others waiting."

Just when they started heading back the way they had come, Robin suddenly stopped and held out her hand.

"What is it, Robin-chwan?" Sanji asked.

"Sh," Robin said quickly. She looked around slowly trying to see through the fog. The others followed suit.

Usopp's heart was pounding in his throat. He hadn't forgotten what Brook had said about a terrible creature watching their every move. Was it too late now?

"Wait. I know this feeling," Zoro said as he put down his water container. He walked past Robin and stood in front of the group. Slowly and silently he drew one of his swords.

"Wh-wh-what's going on?" Usopp whispered. He was sweating bullets and shaking like a leaf, but he seemed to be the only one. The others were all standing perfectly still.

Suddenly, Zoro leapt forward and disappeared into the fog.

A second later, the group heard the sounds of clashing metal.

"Zoro!" Robin called in alarm.

"ZORO!" Usopp screamed at the same time.

A minute later, the clashing sounds stopped and were replaced by the murmur of two men's voices. Soon, the group saw Zoro again but this time he was accompanied by another familiar face.

"Hawkeyes!" everyone shouted in unison.

The older swordsman nodded in response.

"Wow, fancy running into you here!" Sanji said with a laugh.

"It seems you have found my island of respite," Dracule "Hawkeyes" Mihawk said.

"Geez, what a place for respite," Usopp said to himself.

"Monkey D. Luffy," Mihawk continued ignoring Usopp's remark, "Roronoa tells me that you're looking for Red Haired Shanks."

Luffy nodded. "I am."

"And I'm sure you've heard the rumors that he's dead."

"I have," Luffy said simply.

"Hm." Mihawk studied Luffy's expression carefully and found nothing but absolute confidence and determination in his eyes. "You don't need me to tell you that he is in fact still alive."

"Whew, that's good news!" Usopp said to Brook.

The skeleton nodded happily in response.

"However, I don't know his current whereabouts," Mihawk said crossing his arms. "For that, you'll have to find his crew."

"Wait. Isn't Shanks with his crew?" Sanji asked.

The legendary swordsman shook his head. "After his battle with the King of Sea Kings, he decided to leave for an unknown amount of time. He left the crew and his ship in charge of his first mate, and they still yet await his return."

"Where can we find his crew?" Usopp asked.

"They are…somewhere out in the New World," Mihawk answered crossing his arms.

Usopp's head fell at Mihawk's reply. "That doesn't help us at all," he said.

"It appears this is something that must be left to chance," Robin said.

"Not necessarily," Mihawk said. "You may find information of use at Largo Haven."

"Largo Haven. Yes, that would make sense," Robin said. "Of all the moving islands in the New World, Largo Haven moves the most slowly."

"I can't tell you where it is right now, but if you have a good navigator, I'm sure you won't have too much trouble finding it," Mihawk said.

"I see," Robin said. "Well, we do have a good-"

"We have the best navigator," Luffy interrupted.

The other Straw Hat Pirates all looked at their captain in surprise at his sudden outburst.

"Largo Haven. That's our next destination," Luffy continued not noticing his crew's reaction.

"But what are we supposed to do once we get there?" Brook asked.

"There is a fairly large settlement on the island," Robin explained to her crewmate. "If there's anywhere in the New World that is best for obtaining information, it would be there."

"Now you must leave this island," Mihawk said lowering his hat causing it to cast more of a shadow on his face. "It will begin to move in less than an hour so you have very little time to make it back to your ship and sail out of its zone."

"Wow, that's pretty fast even for a New World island," Sanji said.

Mihawk nodded. "Most ships don't make it to the island due to the heavy fog," he said. "By the time a ship reaches where the island would have been, it would have most likely disappeared. I guess you do have quite the navigator, Monkey D. Luffy."

Luffy only nodded in response.

"Thank you for all of your help," Robin said gracefully.

"Yeah, we were lucky to run into you," Usopp said.

"Dracule," Zoro said as the others turned to leave.

The old swordsman nodded. "Perhaps another time, Roronoa," he said. "If we ever meet again, rest assured I will not hold anything back."

"Likewise," Zoro said.

"Come on, Zoro!" Usopp called. "We've gotta hurry back to the ship!"

With one last nod to his old mentor, Zoro ran to catch up with his comrades.

"Are those guys idiots or what?" Franky laughed. "They sailed off in the wrong direction!"

"I'm not surprised," Nami said putting her hands on her hips. "This fog is pretty thick, and the Log Pose started to act a little funny when we got close to the island. If I had tried to follow it instead of my gut, we'd have sailed off in the wrong direction too."

"Wow, Nami!" Chopper said looking up at her in admiration.

"New World Islands are all like that," Nami said with a sigh. "If a ship doesn't have a good navigator, they could potentially be stuck out at sea forever without ever finding an island. A lot of people have died from not being able to replenish supplies out here."

"That's true," Franky said. "Even without this fog, the islands here are all very tricky."

"Anyway, we'd better put the flag up again before Luffy comes back," Nami said. "He'd probably flip if he saw what we did."

"Good point," Franky agreed.

"I'll do it!" Chopper said happily and he walked over to the main mast. As he started to pull on the rope, he heard the sound of the exploration team's voices as they were coming back to the ship.

Nami and Franky had heard them as well.

"You'd better step on it, Chopper!" Franky said in alarm. "They're getting close!"

"Ahh!" Chopper squealed as he pulled the rope as quickly as his little reindeer legs could.

Just as the flag reached the top of the mast, the exploration team reached the gangplank. Luckily since the fog was so thick, none of them had noticed that their flag had been down.

"Welcome back!" Nami said enthusiastically in an attempt to cover up the close call. "Looks like you guys were successful in finding supplies!"

"Of course we were Nami-swan," Sanji said as he put his water container down. "It's my job as the cook of this ship to find food and water for our journeys, and I would never fail at my job."

"We should depart soon," Robin said quickly.

"Yes indeed," Brook agreed. "You might not believe this, but we happened upon the legendary Dracule 'Hawkeyes' Mihawk!"

"Hawkeyes!?" Nami, Chopper, and Franky all said in unison.

The skeleton nodded. "The one and only."

"He warned us that this island's gonna move again soon," Usopp said. "We need to get out of the zone before it takes us with it."

"But the Log Pose hasn't changed yet!" Nami said in alarm. "How can an island move before its Log Pose time is up?"

"I don't know, but we need to get out of here now," Zoro said.

"We can't just leave without the Log Pose resetting!" Nami said stubbornly. "The magnetic pull of the origin island and the next default destination island are both needed for the process. If we go out of the zone now, then I don't know how we'd be able to lock onto the next island."

"But with your improved New World Log Pose we can lock onto a specific island as long as we know it's magnetic pattern regardless if we have an origin island or not," Robin said.

"True, but we have no idea which island we're going to!" Nami said.

"Hawkeyes told us to head to Largo Haven," Robin explained calmly. "I'm sure there's a record of it somewhere in our library."

"Largo Haven," Nami said thoughtfully. "Yeah, I think there is."

"Chopper," Robin called.

"Yes, Robin?"

"You and I will go to the library and find the map of Largo Haven. The rest of you must get us out of here as soon as possible," Robin instructed.

"Aye!"

"Ok," Nami said with uncertainty still in her voice. It was only then she noticed that Luffy had been looking at her the whole time but hadn't said a word. She glanced at him, and the two made eye contact for a split second, but she quickly turned away. A small blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Let's get out of here," Zoro said.

Usopp nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I'll be glad to leave this fog behind us. But at least now we know why there's fog every time Hawkeyes goes somewhere." He looked over at Luffy expecting a laugh or a comment but got nothing from him.

"Ok," Nami said. "Zoro, hoist the anchor. We've got to head straight northeast if we want to get out of the zone as quickly as possible."

"Aye!"


	3. Chapter 3: Calm Before the Storm

**Chapter 3**

**Calm Before the Storm**

The voyage to Largo Haven was surprisingly uneventful. It was almost as if the sea knew that the Straw Hat Pirates were headed toward the slowest moving island and so it became slower as well. There were still a few storms that could've potentially torn the ship to pieces in a heartbeat, but with prior experience under her belt, Nami was able to avoid all of them with more or less ease. She and the rest of the crew were kept busy during the trip, but it wasn't nearly as bad as they had expected it to be.

Several days later, under an unnaturally red sky and setting sun, Usopp caught sight of their destination island. "Guys, I think I see it!" he called out through the speakers from the crow's nest.

"Already?" Sanji asked. "Well, that was pretty easy."

"Maybe the New World's getting soft," Zoro said with a yawn.

"Or maybe I'm just that good of a navigator," Nami said smugly.

Zoro lifted an eyelid to glance at the laughing redhead but didn't bother answering.

"I'm glad that it wasn't like last time we were in the New World," Chopper said with a sigh of relief.

"I agree," Robin said. "As much as we all love thrills and adventure, it is nice to have an easier voyage every now and then."

"I'll say," Franky said. "This time I didn't have to make constant repairs to my baby. She's still as pristine as when I last fixed her up!"

The Thousand Sunny glided into the dock next to a bunch of other ships and soon the group was standing at the edge of a large town. It seemed to be bustling with activity as there were many people milling about doing their work, but on second glance, bustling might not be the correct word to describe it. Although there were many people doing many things, everything seemed slower than normal. The way the people walked, the way they talked, the way the very air seemed to move was as if someone had slowed down time.

"What's with everyone here?" Usopp asked noticing these strange details as he, Zoro, Nami, Robin, and Chopper walked through the town. "They're all moving so slowly."

"The island is called Largo Haven," Robin said crossing her arms. "Although we didn't come by here on our last voyage to the New World, this place is famous for being a refuge. It is said that the island makes its inhabitants and its surroundings slower than normal."

"Seems about right," Zoro said. "Maybe that's why we had such an easy time getting here. Those storms looked like they were going to be nasty from a distance, but we ended up having no problem outrunning them."

"W-h-y, h-e-l-l-o t-h-e-r-e, s-t-r-a-n-g-e-r-s," an elderly man said slowly as he walked up to greet them.

Usopp and Chopper looked at each other and immediately tried to stifle a burst of laughter at the man's speech.

Nami quickly bonked both of them on the head. "Hello, sir," she said brightly. "This is Largo Haven, isn't it?"

The man seemed to ignore her question. In fact, he didn't even seem to notice that Usopp and Chopper had laughed at him or that they had had their heads bonked by Nami. He was still smiling the exact same smile he had when he had first spoken to them. After a moment of silence, the man's expression changed to one of confusion, and after another moment of silence, he started laughing. "H-a-h-a-h-a," he chuckled slowly. "Y-o-u-'r-e a l-i-v-e-l-y b-u-n-c-h, a-i-n-'t y-a?"

"Um…" Nami began to say but then Robin held a hand up to stop her.

Sure enough, a moment later, the man slowly looked back at Nami and nodded his head. "Y-e-s, m-a-'a-m," he finally answered Nami's question. "L-a-r-g-o H-a-v-e-n. T-h-e c-a-l-m b-e-f-o-r-e t-h-e s-t-o-r-m."

"This could take a while," Zoro said with a sigh.

After a painstakingly long time, the Straw Hats were able to communicate to the old man that they were looking for the Red Hair Pirates.

"O-h, y-o-u j-u-s-t m-i-s-s-e-d t-h-e-m!" the old man exclaimed with a hearty but extremely sluggish laugh. "T-h-e-m R-e-d H-a-i-r P-i-r-a-t-e-s v-i-s-i-t t-h-i-s t-o-w-n a l-o-t. I-t-'s t-o-o b-a-d. T-h-e-y j-u-s-t l-e-f-t t-h-i-s m-o-r-n-i-n-g."

"Where were they headed?" Nami asked impatiently as she tapped her fingers on her arm. Unfortunately for her, she had been the one who had been talking to the old man for the past half hour, and it was beginning to get on her nerves. It didn't help that Usopp and Chopper were dying of laughter behind her. Even Robin had chuckled every now and then at the frustration that Nami was displaying. Zoro had leaned back against a barrel and fallen asleep. Despite all the non-help she was getting from her crewmates, Nami was just glad that Luffy had gone food shopping with Sanji and Brook so he wasn't there to make things worse.

The old man stared at her with a pleasant smile on his face for a minute or two before answering. "I d-o-n-'t k-n-o-w."

That did it for Nami and she threw her hands up in the air. "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" she cried in frustration. "I can't do this anymore!"

Usopp and Chopper couldn't contain themselves any longer. They burst out laughing and fell to the ground holding their stomachs.

A fuming Nami turned and gave them the most horrifying look of anger, and the two immediately stopped laughing and started to cower in fear.

Robin put a hand on Nami's shoulder. "Perhaps there is someone in this town who would know?" she asked the old man. Robin was a much more patient person than Nami was so she figured she could take over from then on.

After a few minutes and quite a few changes of expression, the old man nodded to Robin. "T-h-e-r-e i-s. I c-a-n t-a-k-e y-o-u t-o h-i-m i-f y-o-u-'d l-i-k-e."

Nami was about to retort something like "why didn't you mention that in the first place?" but Robin stopped her. "That would be very kind of you," Robin said with a sweet smile.

With that, the old man led the group of pirates into town at a snail's pace. Everyone seemed to talk and move the same way the old man did, and it seemed to be the most normal thing in the world to them.

"S-o," the old man said. "W-h-e-r-e a-r-e y-o-u f-o-l-k-s f-r-o-m?"

"We're from the Blue Sea," Robin replied.

A minute later, "M-y, m-y. T-h-a-t-'s q-u-i-t-e f-a-r f-r-o-m h-e-r-e!" the old man said with a slow chuckle. "M-o-s-t o-f o-u-r v-i-s-i-t-o-r-s c-o-m-e f-r-o-m t-h-e B-l-u-e S-e-a, b-u-t i-t-'s n-o-t o-f-t-e-n t-h-a-t t-h-e-y c-o-m-e. Y-o-u f-o-l-k-s m-u-s-t b-e p-i-r-a-t-e-s. A-m I w-r-o-n-g?"

Robin laughed casually. "And why would you say that?"

Pause.

The old man laughed as well. "T-h-e o-n-l-y f-o-l-k-s w-h-o c-o-m-e b-y h-e-r-e a-r-e e-i-t-h-e-r p-i-r-a-t-e-s o-r M-a-r-i-n-e-s, a-n-d y-o-u d-o-n-'t s-t-r-i-k-e m-e a-s M-a-r-i-n-e t-y-p-e-s."

"Is that so?"

"C-o-m-e t-o t-h-i-n-k o-f i-t, y-o-u a-l-l l-o-o-k v-a-g-u-e-l-y f-a-m-i-l-i-a-r," the old man said slowly putting a hand under his chin.

Nami felt her breath get caught in her throat. Usually when people recognized them as the Straw Hat Pirates, they would either go running in fear or they would try to catch them and turn them in for the humongous bounty.

Robin, however, was perfectly calm. Largo Haven was known for being hospitable to Marines and pirates alike. People who lived here weren't afraid of either and they didn't care too much for the rich, high life. If someone wanted to live on Largo Haven, that person most likely was already a slow, laidback person who wanted to live a slow, laidback life.

"Y-o-u w-o-u-l-d-n-'t h-a-p-p-e-n t-o b-e t-h-e S-t-r-a-w H-a-t P-i-r-a-t-e-s, w-o-u-l-d y-o-u?" the old man asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"He knows!" Nami, Usopp, and Chopper squealed in fear.

"I see our reputation precedes us," Robin said with a laugh.

"Oi, Robin! How can you be so calm about this?" Usopp asked. "What if the whole town decides to kick us out?"

"Or turn us in?" Chopper added.

"They wouldn't be able to do either if they tried," Zoro said with a yawn.

"Don't worry about it," Robin said. "And try not to talk too much. More talking makes communicating with our friend more difficult."

Usopp looked like he was about to say something else but then he stopped himself. Instead he nodded his head and kept quiet.

Sure enough, it took the old man almost ten whole minutes to catch up with the conversation. It was interesting for the Straw Hats to watch as his face expressed, in slow motion, different emotions based on what they had said minutes ago. "I.. t..s o!" the old man finally exclaimed with an unhurried nod.

Usopp sighed in exasperation. "I'm sure glad I'm not the one talking to the old man," he said to Chopper.

Chopper nodded in agreement.

"W-e-l-l d-o-n-'t y-o-u w-o-r-r-y y-o-u-r-s-e-l-f, y-o-u-n-g f-e-l-l-a," the old man laughed. "L-a-r-g-o H-a-v-e-n w-e-l-c-o-m-e-s o-n-e a-n-d a-l-l w-i-t-h-o-u-t d-i-s-c-r-i-m-i-n-a-t-i-o-n. T-h-e-r-e a-r-e a f-e-w M-a-r-i-n-e-s h-e-r-e, h-o-w-e-v-e-r, s-o I w-o-u-l-d k-e-e-p m-y h-e-a-d d-o-w-n i-f I w-e-r-e y-o-u."

Everyone nodded.

After what seemed like an eternity for the Straw Hats, the old man finally stopped in front of a small purple house with a sign that read, "Warning! Fast pace ahead!"

"H-e-r-e w-e a-r-e!" the old man said with a nod. "I h-o-p-e M-r. P-r-e-s-t-o c-a-n h-e-l-p y-o-u f-o-l-k-s o-u-t."

"Thank you so much, Mr…."

Pause.

"S-a-m. L-a-n-g S-a-m," the old man said with a grin.

"Thank you, Mr. Sam," Robin said.

"S-e-e y-o-u y-o-u-n-g-s-t-e-r-s a-r-o-u-n-d!" With that, Lang Sam slowly walked back into the crowd of slow moving people.

"Whew!" Usopp sighed in relief. "That was too much. I thought I was gonna go crazy."

"You thought you were going to go crazy?" Nami scoffed. "You weren't even the one talking to him."

"So who is this Presto guy anyway?" Zoro asked crossing his arms as he inspected the sign.

Robin shrugged. "You know as much as I do."

"Let's get inside," Nami said.

"Yeah, before someone else tries to talk to us," Chopper said.

"I'll bet Sanji's have the time of his life trying to buy food with Luffy and Brook," Usopp snickered. "Luffy probably won't understand why everyone's so slow."

"And Brook is probably scaring everyone, only slowly!" Chopper added with a laugh.

Sure enough, across town, Sanji was becoming more and more frustrated as he went from stall to stall trying to buy provisions.

Usopp was right. Luffy didn't understand why everyone moved and talked so slowly and he was constantly talking to one person or another trying to get them to respond. However, every time he asked them a question and they didn't respond right away, he would immediately bombard them with other questions or statements, and the poor townspeople could only stand there and stare confusedly at him.

Brook didn't even need to talk to people for them to react to him. In fact, everywhere they walked, a wave of frightened or confused faces followed two or three minutes behind.

"Why did I get stuck with the two of you?" Sanji asked himself out loud as he put a hand over his face in self-pity.

"This place is weird," Luffy said ignoring his frustrated cook. "What's with all these people?"

"In music, largo means a slow, plodding, heavy tempo," Brook mused as they continued to walk through the sluggish crowds. "Perhaps that term applies not only to the island but to the people who live here as well."

"All the more reason for you not to talk to them, Luffy," Sanji growled. "The more you talk, the more confused they all get because you don't give them enough time to respond. Especially don't talk to the vendors because then I have to wait until they answer all of your damn questions in order to buy anything from them!"

Luffy gave a hearty laugh. "Ah! Sorry, Sanji," he said with a grin.

Brook glanced down at his smiling captain. After their little nighttime conversation they had had a few of weeks ago, the skeleton knew that Luffy wouldn't be able to act normally around Nami any longer since Luffy realized that he had feelings for her. There was nothing Brook could do about it either so he was relieved to find Luffy laughing and causing trouble again just like he used to.

"Geez," Sanji said with a huff. "All right. We need to stop here to get some salt. You two stay out here and let me handle this alone."

"Aye," Luffy and Brook said in unison. Once Sanji was in the store, the two looked at each other and laughed.

"You know, it's kind of fun to say a bunch of things to these guys and then watch them try to respond," Luffy said.

"Ah, it is most amusing," Brook said. "I wonder how the others are faring? I hope that they are able to find useful information despite the townsfolk's slowness."

"Eh, they should be ok," Luffy said as he stretched his arms over his head. "Nami and Robin are good at getting information, so I'm not too worried."

Brook studied Luffy's face after hearing his captain say Nami's name. It didn't seem like he had any qualms about mentioning her out loud. Maybe Luffy had come to terms with his dilemma. Brook debated whether or not to ask Luffy about it.

"Hey, Brook," Luffy interrupted the skeleton's thoughts.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course!"

"How do you know when you're destiny's been fulfilled?"

Brook thought back when he had told Luffy that he had chosen to leave his love, Isabel, for the sea since he felt that his destiny had not been fulfilled yet. He paused before responding to Luffy's question. "Ah, that is difficult to say," he said. "I would imagine that it would be different for everyone, and I would even go as far as to say that one could have multiple destinies."

"Multiple destinies?"

"For example, I thought that my destiny was to be a musician on a pirate ship," Brook said, "but I achieved that goal while I was still quite young. Then after my crew died and I was alone on my ship, I thought that my destiny was to return to Laboon and play the tone dial of my comrades and me singing our last song together. But once that was done, I felt that my destiny was to stay with you and the rest of the crew to sail the seas until you became the Pirate King."

"But I'm not really the Pirate King yet," Luffy said, his voice suddenly soft and not as lively as before.

That took Brook by surprise. "Whatever do you mean? You have the One Piece, do you not? Your reputation goes throughout the land! You are the richest, most feared pirate on the seas!"

"Yeah, but there's something else I have to do before I can be the true Pirate King," Luffy said.

"What might that be?" Brook asked unable to think of anything else that would constitute as a requirement for being the Pirate King.

"When you died, Brook, your spirit stayed here instead of going to the spirit realm."

"Yes, I suppose you're right. That's the power of the Revive fruit."

Luffy nodded. "In order to become the true King of the Pirates I need to be able to do that too."

Brook would have raised an eyebrow if he had had one. "You do? May I ask why?"

"Gold Roger told me."

"Ah, you put on the hat?"

"Yeah," Luffy said. "He said that in order for someone to be King of the Pirates, he would have to have the strength to keep his own spirit from going into the spirit realm."

"Interesting," Brook said putting a boney hand under his chin. "I suppose the only person to do that was Gold Roger, and of course myself, but I could only do so because I ate the Revive fruit."

"Oh, so you two aren't causing trouble for once," Sanji said as he came out of the store carrying a huge bag of salt over his shoulder.

"Aye!" Luffy said happily, his manner and demeanor completely changing.

Brook glanced at Luffy but then quickly nodded to Sanji.

"It looks like that's everything," Sanji said with a sigh. "Let's head back to the Sunny. Maybe Nami-swan and Robin-chwan are already back awaiting my return!"

Once again Brook glanced down at Luffy, but the rubber man seemed to be unaffected by Sanji's statement.

"Yeah, let's get going. I wanna know if the others found out where Shanks is," Luffy said enthusiastically.

"Hello, hello, hello, hello, and hello!" a tall, skinny man said in rapid succession to each of the Straw Hats once they had entered the strange purple house. "My name is Molto! Molto Presto at your service!"

"Good evening, Mr. Presto," Robin said. "We've come-"

"Ah yes! Come in! Come in! Coffee? Tea? I'll go get some started right away! You all just sit down wherever you like and make yourselves comfortable! I do hope there are enough seats for everyone! Oh! Here's a small but fluffy cushion for you, Mr. Reindeer! And for you lovely ladies, here are two sofa chairs that would suit you nicely! Mr. Swordsman and Mr. Longnose, here are some gentlemanly chairs for you! Ah! But I must be off to the kitchen! Do make yourselves at home while I prepare your tea and coffee! Oh! I'll also bring out some snacks as well! So much to do and so little time!" With that he rushed out of the room before any of the pirates had time to respond to anything he had said.

The group just sat for a moment, all completely stunned at the massive influx of words that had just been dumped on their ears.

"Wow," Usopp said finally breaking the silence. "That guy sure can talk."

"I almost couldn't understand what he was saying after all the slow talking we've been listening to," Nami said.

Molto Presto then burst back in the room carrying a tray of cups filled with coffee and tea and a tray of snacks. "Please make yourselves at home!" he said almost too quickly. "Have a biscuit! Or even two! Please don't be bashful! I didn't know if you wanted coffee or tea so I made you all one of each! Please have both! It's my pleasure to serve guests from the Blue Sea!"

"How'd you know we're from the Blue Sea?" Nami quickly asked just as Mr. Presto was inhaling in preparation for another speech.

"Ah! My dear, you're famous! You are all world famous pirates! I don't even need to see your captain to know who you folks are!" He pointed a skinny finger at Zoro. "Roronoa Zoro, the legendary swordsman!"

Zoro only had the time to look up before Presto was off to the races again.

Presto pointed his finger at Robin who was sitting next to Zoro. "Nico Robin, the Devil's Child! Nami, the Cat Burglar! Chopper, doctor and pet! And finally, Usopp, the Sharpshooter!"

Finally a pause in his speech.

"Uh…" Nami proceeded to say as she tried to think of how to respond.

The pause ended quickly. "Not only do I know who you all are, I know why you have come back to the New World!"

"You do?" Usopp asked in surprise.

"It's not hard to put two and two together, my long-nosed friend!" Presto said with a quick laugh. "Your captain, Monkey D. Luffy, is looking for Red Hair Shanks! Although I don't know the reason why, I do know at least that much! And now you've come to me, the know-it-all of Largo Haven, to ask for the whereabouts of the Red Hair Pirates!"

"My, you certainly do know it all," Robin said with a laugh.

Excited by her compliment, Presto began an extremely quick, high-pitched laugh.

"So do you know where the Red Hair Pirates went?" Nami asked cutting off his laugh.

Presto looked at her and his expression darkened. "Why, my dear, they have gone to a most terrifying place!"

"Terrifying?!" Usopp and Chopper asked in fear.

"Yes," Presto said. "MWAHAHAHA-"

"Just tell us already," Zoro interrupted taking a sip of his tea.

"Ah, yes. Of course!" Presto said clearing his throat. "They have gone…to the distant island of Raftel!"

"Raftel?" Nami repeated in surprise.

"Interesting," Robin said.

"Interesting indeed," Presto said with a nod.

"How do you know all this?" Usopp asked.

"Like I said before, Mr. Pinocchio, I am the town know-it-all! If there is something to be known on this island, then I am the one to know it! All of my slow-moving, slow-talking friends couldn't care less about what goes on in the world, but I do! I make it my business to know! If there are any travellers that stop by Largo Haven, the wonderful but sluggish townsfolk bring them all to me! All they want is a slow, peaceful lifestyle, which is hard to come by in this part of the Grand Line, but somehow they make it work! This island is their paradise!"

"Then why does someone like you live here too?" Chopper asked innocently.

"Ah! That is because I too have fallen in love with the peaceful life," Presto said leaning his head on his hand. "This charming town! The wonderful folk! All my years I have lived in the fast lane, but once I came to this island, my perspective on life changed! Although I myself will never completely adapt to the slow, laid-back life that my friends and neighbors have, I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate it! For me, observing such a life is just as good as living it!"

"But back to the Red Hair Pirates," Nami said determined to confirm whether or not Presto was full of it or not. "Lang Sam told us that they were here just this morning."

"Yes, indeed they were! In fact, their first mate had tea with me right before they set sail!"

"Beckman? Having tea?" Usopp couldn't help but laugh.

"He told me that they had received a message from Shanks to meet him on Raftel. They also said that Shanks had told them to bring your captain along with them."

"How did Shanks send them the message?" Nami asked.

"I assume by mail or by Den Den Mushi," Presto said. "He never really said how."

"Why would Beckman tell you about what they were up to?"

"Beckman? He and I are quite good friends, I tell you! The Red Hair Pirates always come by here when they're in the area! I've gotten to know them well!"

"But we don't know you at all," Nami said crossing her arms.

Her crewmates looked at her surprised by her straightforwardness.

Molto Presto seemed to be surprised too since he didn't respond right away.

"How do we know you're telling us the truth?" Nami asked. "Raftel is a long ways away from here, and it's a dangerous journey. The only people who've ever set foot on that island are Luffy and Gold Roger himself. Even though Shanks and the Red Hair Pirates are powerful, they still haven't been able to get to Raftel yet. For all we know, you could be sending us into a trap by telling us that they're going there."

Presto looked keenly at the young red-haired girl in front of him. Her eyes showed no sign of wavering. He knew that there was no way anyone could pull something over her eyes. She wanted information but was determined to make sure it was real. Presto laughed in admiration. "My dear girl," he said as he stood up. "You are quite the talker. I like that! Yes, I like that very much. What good is information if it isn't real? However, you are in luck! When I say I am a know-it-all, I do mean it in the most literal sense. The information I have is always correct, and I would never willingly spread false news to anyone. I have made it my duty to know what goes on in the world and so I have developed methods for parsing out the truth from the lies! You can count on me, from one talker to another, that what I say is true."

Nami looked straight back into Presto's eyes with absolute resolution. Finally after a moment of intense silence she nodded her head. "I see," she said.

"Nami, is he telling us the truth?" Zoro asked.

"Yes," she finally said. "We need to go back to Raftel."

Both groups managed to make it back to the Thousand Sunny without too many more mishaps. To Nami's and everyone else's relief, Luffy seemed to be back to normal as he recounted all the trouble that he and Brook had caused the poor cook. Nami was only too happy to tell Luffy that they now knew where to find Shanks's crew.

"Raftel?" Sanji asked. "We have to go all the way back to Raftel?"

Nami nodded. "That's what Mr. Presto said. He told us that Shanks had messaged his crew to meet him on Raftel and to bring Luffy with them."

"So that must mean that they are looking for us just as we are looking for them!" Brook said.

"All right!" Luffy said enthusiastically as he made a fist. "Now we're getting somewhere!"

"That's right!" Nami said happily upon seeing how psyched Luffy was.

"Wait a minute!" Usopp shouted. "Don't you guys remember? We all nearly died last time we went to that cursed island. In the end, only Luffy managed to actually get to the island while we were nearly wiped out by the storm!"

"And the Whale Dragons!" Chopper squealed.

"Oh yeah!" Luffy said with a laugh. "I forgot about that."

"How could you forget about that?!" Usopp screamed in disbelief.

"Regardless, if that's where the Red Hair Pirates are headed then that's where we need to go," Zoro said crossing his arms.

"At least we know what we're up against this time," Brook offered.

"OW!" Franky shouted with glee. "If we go back to Raftel again, then that'll mean my baby's gonna be the only ship in history to ever go there twice!"

"You guys can't be serious!" Usopp sobbed as he slumped to the ground.

Chopper put a comforting hoof on his shoulder.

"What do you think, Luffy?" Nami asked with a smile. "Should we get going or what?"

Luffy looked into Nami's eyes for the first time in a long time. They were full of confidence and sparkled in the firelight from the ship's lamps. That was one of the things he loved about her.

"Luffy?" Nami asked in concern since he hadn't said anything in response yet.

"Ah," Luffy said quickly and smiled broadly. "Yeah! Let's set sail for Raftel!"


	4. Ch 4: Familiar Places w Familiar faces

**Chapter 4**

**Familiar Places with Familiar Faces**

Nami quickly set to work on mapping out the best route to get to Raftel. It would take them quite a bit of time to get there so she needed to make sure they could stop at some islands along the way to restock on supplies while avoiding the islands that she knew moved around a lot or were really dangerous. Unfortunately, no matter how many different routes she mapped, one island seemed impossible to avoid: Raijin Island.

The last time the Straw Hats had gone there, the Thousand Sunny was nearly torn to shreds by the almost constant lightening rain. Lucky for them, an old woman named Kasa lived there and rented them rubber umbrellas but for an outrageous price. Nami remembered that Kasa had looked like she was about to drop dead at any minute making the navigator wonder if Kasa was still kicking or not. If not, there was really no one else on the island, and they had no idea where the umbrellas were.

Despite the lightening rain, Raijin Island was full of edible plants and animals that were needed in order to make it to Raftel. However, those plants and animals had developed defense systems that absorbed the lightening rain and they used it to attack any predators, namely any starving travelers who had managed to come that far.

After scribbling out an attempt at drawing another route that avoided Raijin, Nami finally threw her pen down on the desk. "Fine! You win!" she shouted at her maps. The pieces of paper sat silently on her desk looking up at the frustrated navigator, but Nami could swear they were laughing in her face. With a humph Nami grabbed her final sketch of the route that they were going to take to get to Raftel.

The navigator burst open the door surprising everyone on deck. "OK!" she shouted triumphantly. "I've mapped out our route!"

"All right!" Luffy shouted.

"That's great, Nami!" Chopper said clapping his hooves together.

"As expected from my Nami-swaaaan!" Sanji swooned.

"I hope you picked the safest route," Usopp said worriedly.

"Yohoho! So where's our next destination, Miss Navigator?" Brook asked.

Nami laughed confidently and then dramatically pointed a finger to the west. "Raijin Island!" she announced.

The crew went silent.

Nami put her arm down and laughed sheepishly. She knew that she would get this reaction from them.

"RAIJIN ISLAND?!" Usopp exploded. "I said the SAFEST route! Not the one that'll kill us on site!"

"It rains LIGHTNING!" Chopper cried. "Remember last time?!"

"Are you CRAZY?" Frank bellowed. "My baby nearly got burned to a crisp last time we were there!"

"Ehehehe…" Nami laughed again. "Sorry, guys. It's the only way we can get there without risking starving to death."

"ALL RIGHT!" Luffy shouted punching the air with glee. "That was a fun island! I can't wait to go back there!"

"Maybe for you!" Usopp screeched at his captain. "You're made of rubber! Of course you wouldn't be afraid of lightning rain!"

"Nami, are you sure this is the only way?" Robin asked calmly.

The redheaded navigator nodded sadly. "Unfortunately," she said. "But I did try really hard to avoid it!"

Robin laughed and nodded in approval. "I never doubted that," she said sweetly. "If that's the way you've mapped it, then I have no qualms about going to Raijin again."

"Come on, you guys are so pathetic," Zoro mocked the others. "It wasn't that bad."

Usopp and Chopper were so distraught that neither could even come up with a response to Zoro's snide comment.

"Yeah, if Nami says that's the way to go then that's the way we're going!" Luffy announced.

Nami looked at Luffy as a big smile crossed her face.

Luffy nodded at Nami and then turned back to the others. "All right! Let's hoist the anchor and set sail for Raijin Island!"

"Aye!"

"Aye…"

Now that Luffy seemed to be back to normal, Nami had a much easier time on the ship. The two still didn't talk much besides when they were in a group, but at least he wasn't avoiding her, and she was happy to just be able to talk and joke around with him again.

Three run-ins with the Marines, seven cyclones, and a battle with a moderately tough group of bounty hunters later, the Straw Hat Pirates finally arrived at the dreaded Raijin Island. It had taken them nearly two months to get there and they were almost out of food and water, just as Nami had predicted they would be.

Usopp swallowed a lump in his throat as he looked through his binoculars at the island. The lightning rain was in full swing, and the surface of the island lit up against the blackened sky. It wouldn't be long now before they would start to feel the effects of the rain as well. Despite all of this, he knew, that as a member of the Straw Hat Pirate crew, he had no choice but to go there and try to survive.

"Oi, Usopp," Franky laughed upon seeing the sweating sharpshooter. "Why the long face?"

"Or should we say, why the long nose?" Brook offered. "Yohohoho!"

Franky slapped his knee as he burst out laughing as well.

"Shut up!" Usopp screamed at his mockers. "It's not my fault that you guys don't care about lightning rain!" He pointed a finger at Brook. "You're already dead, and Franky, you're a freakin' robot! Electricity's like a drink of water for you. But I'm a normal human being!" With that, Usopp broke into a sob.

"Oh, cheer up, my friend," Brook said putting a boney hand on Usopp's shoulder. "I'm certain that old woman will rent us those umbrellas again."

"She'd better not charge us one million berries each again!" Nami growled.

Usopp continued sobbing. "We don't even know if she's still alive!" he cried. "She was about to keel over at any minute last time we were here, and that was years ago!"

"We can just send Luffy to the island first to make sure," Sanji suggested.

"Oi, oi," Zoro said. "Are you sure he'll be able to keep from getting distracted by himself? Remember last time he went off alone to scout?"

"Huh…" Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Sanji, Franky, and Brook all said simultaneously as they thought back.

At one point in their travels, they had reached an island that at first glance seemed to be normal but they had soon discovered that it was the Island of Mosquitoes. As fearless as the Straw Hat Pirates were, nobody wanted to volunteer to get the supplies they so desperately needed from the island except Luffy who either didn't mind getting bitten by mosquitoes or didn't understand that he would. In the end, Luffy had gone onto the island alone and came back completely empty handed and covered from head to toe in red, itchy bumps even though Chopper had given him a cream to repel the insects. The rubber man had been so excited about exploring the island that he had forgotten the cream, forgotten his objective, and nearly forgotten his way back to the ship. Needless to say, the group had to undergo several days of famine before they found another island they could restock their supplies on.

"Yeah, maybe that's not such a good idea," Nami said with a sigh.

Usopp, Sanji, Franky, and Brook all nodded in agreement.

"Then what should we do?" Chopper asked. "How can we even get close to the island without getting hit by lightning?"

Suddenly, a beam of light shot out of each of the cyborg shipwright's ears as an idea light bulb went off in his semi-mechanical head. "Hey, guys! I just thought of a plan!"

"You did?" Chopper asked in amazement.

Franky nodded and a confident smile crossed his face. "We're going to make our own umbrella," he announced.

"Huh?" the others said in unison.

Franky jerked a thumb at Luffy, and everyone looked at their captain.

"What?" Luffy asked completely oblivious as usual.

Minutes later, Luffy was sitting on a large rounded wooden board with four posts that extended above and below the board at each corner.

"So, tell me again how this is going to work?" Zoro asked Franky.

"It's simple," Franky said with a laugh. "Luffy's just going to stretch himself out across the board and hang on to the four posts with his hands and feet. You and Sanji will hold two posts at each end and lift Luffy up like an umbrella, while Nami walks in the middle to direct you to where old lady Kasa lives."

"Do you really think this'll work?" Nami asked doubtfully.

Franky gave the uncertain navigator a thumbs up. "Of course it will!" he said confidently. "As long as Luffy doesn't let go of the posts, he'll be exactly like one of that old hag's umbrellas!"

Robin laughed at Franky's plan. "My, my, Franky," she said serenely. "This is quite the interesting plan."

"But will it work?" Nami asked her wanting confirmation.

"I suppose it should," she replied.

"As long as Luffy doesn't get distracted though," Usopp said.

"Hey, I won't get distracted!" Luffy retorted. "This'll be easy!"

Nami sighed. "And of course I'm the one who has to go with you three idiots," she said putting her hands on her hips.

"What'd you say?" Zoro growled.

"Admit it. Without me, you guys would get hopelessly lost," Nami mocked and stuck a tongue out at the green-haired swordsman.

"Why you-"

"I'm just happy to be going with Nami-swan!" Sanji sang. "Don't worry. I'll protect you no matter what!"

Nami smiled weakly at the blonde cook. "Well, shall we then?"

Luffy nodded. "Right." He lay down on his stomach and stretched himself out so that he could grab onto the four posts. He even flattened out his torso so that his body covered the entire board.

"Hahaha!" Chopper laughed. "You look like a pancake!"

"We'll be back," Nami said as Zoro and Sanji picked up their makeshift umbrella. With that, the four boarded the Mini Merry #2 and headed for shore.

"I hope this works," Usopp said worriedly.

"Luffy's rubber should be able to keep the lightning from hitting them," Robin reassured him.

Sure enough, as the Mini Merry #2 got closer and closer to the dreaded island, the lightning rain seemed unable to hit the four explorers. The plan had worked like a charm.

"See? I told you it would work!" Franky said as he nodded in approval.

"Once they find Kasa, they can bring us back some umbrellas, and then we can go get supplies. Right, Robin?" Chopper asked.

Robin nodded. "That's right, Chopper," she said with a smile. "If all goes well, we shouldn't be here for long."

The four explorers reached the island in amazing safety. When they ran ashore, they carefully avoided touching the seawater in order to keep from getting electrocuted. Franky had installed a lightening rod onto the Mini Merry #2 so it could withstand a small amount of electricity. The storm didn't seem to be getting any worse so the group figured the boat would be ok.

"This place hasn't changed a bit," Zoro commented as they took a look around.

The island was covered in strange, lustrous vegetation that glowed a little brighter at every spot a lightning raindrop hit it. It was noisy too. Every drop of rain made a tiny, sizzling, electric sound, and since it was storming at the moment, all of their sounds combined made it a little difficult to hear.

"Let's just hurry and find Kasa," Nami said nervously. Although Luffy seemed to be deflecting the rain, one false move and she or one of the umbrella holders could get zapped.

"WOOO! I forgot how cool this place was," Luffy shouted happily from above.

"Yeah…cool…" Sanji said sarcastically.

The four trekked into the electric forest. Nami had marked on the map where Kasa had lived before when they had met her in the past, so they had no trouble finding her house. Since they weren't hunting or collecting food, the wildlife seemed to ignore them instead of attacking, which was good news for the Straw Hats. Since Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji all had their hands full with Franky's makeshift umbrella, Nami would have to be their defense if they were attacked and she knew better than anyone else that she was no fighter.

Soon, they found Kasa's old house.

"It's still here!" Nami sighed in relief.

"I just hope the old hag didn't kick the bucket," Zoro said.

"But remember before?" Sanji said. "The old lady came out to meet us when we came on shore last time we were here. This time we had to come find her."

"Oh no, maybe she did pass!" Nami said in alarm.

"Let's not get too worked up about it yet," Zoro said calmly. "All we can do is go inside and take a look around."

"What are you guys talking about down there?" Luffy shouted above the electric din.

"Nothing!" Nami shouted back. "We're gonna go inside now. Ok?"

"Ok!"

The old woman's house was dark when the four let themselves in. Everything looked dusty and unused. The more they saw the more the evidence pointed to the fact that old Kasa had indeed croaked. The lights still worked but only because it was fueled by the lightning rain that fell.

"HELLOOOO?" Luffy shouted into the house.

No reply.

"I knew it," Nami sobbed. "I should've never led us here! How are we going to get those stupid umbrellas now?"

"Don't cry, Nami-san," Sanji said chivalrously. "I'll tear this house apart brick by brick until I find them!"

"She was pretty overprotective of those umbrellas though," Zoro said as he looked around the dusty house. "Who knows where she could've hidden them."

"Yeah, it's too bad she was so old and went off and died while we were gone," Luffy said putting his hands behind his head.

"Who are you calling old?!"

"Huh?!" The four pirates turned to see an extremely wrinkled, bent-over, old woman in a dark cloak coming down the stairs. She had an umbrella in her hand that she was using for a walking stick.

"Oh, so you didn't expire," Luffy said with a laugh.

With amazing speed, Kasa suddenly rushed over to the rubber captain and bonked him on the head with her umbrella. "Respect your elders, you nitwit!" she screamed.

"Thank goodness we found you!" Nami said. "We really need to borrow some of your umbrellas so that we can get supplies."

"Borrow?" Kasa scoffed but then her scoff turned into a hack. She began to breathe heavily between hacks as she sputtered and coughed herself into a frenzy.

All four of the pirates looked at her in alarm.

"Oh no! She's really gonna do it now!" Sanji shouted in fear.

"She's gonna go stiff!" Zoro yelled.

"She's going to meet her maker!" Nami screamed.

"She's gonna go kaput!" Luffy squealed.

Four bonks on the head later, Kasa had stopped hacking and stood fuming at the younger ones in front of her. "I said respect your elders!" she screeched.

"Sorry…" the four said in unison.

"Ahem," Kasa cleared her throat, "As for the umbrellas, I would love to rent them to you for my new all time low price of two million berries each-"

"That's more than last time, you old hag!" Nami shrieked at Kasa.

Kasa ignored the fuming navigator and continued, "but I've already lent them to another group of pirates who haven't finished their business here."

"Another group of pirates?" Zoro asked. "Who are they?"

"That's seller-customer confidential."

"I thought that only applied to doctors and their patients," Sanji said.

Kasa bonked Sanji on the head again. "It applies to where I say it applies, whippersnapper!"

"Then what can we do?" Nami asked.

"You'll just have to wait," Kasa said. "They only just got here a few hours ago so who knows when they'll be back?" She proceeded to laugh an old, screechy laugh that turned into another hacking fit.

Luffy's eyes went wide in alarm again. "Oh no! She's gonna-"

"Luffy don't say it!" Nami interrupted as she clamped a hand over his mouth.

Once Kasa was done coughing up a lung, she sat down on an old, moth-eaten sofa chair. "Now," she said, "bring me my tea."

"What?" Zoro said with a frown. "We're your customers, not your servants."

"I said, bring me my tea!" Kasa repeated.

Zoro was about to retort again when Nami stopped him. "Let's do what she asks," she said. Then aside to her companions she added, "Maybe she'll give us a discount if we're nice to her while we wait."

"That's boring," Luffy whined. "I wanna go out and see who those other pirates are. They must be strong if they made it all the way here!"

"I'm with Luffy," Zoro said with a humph. "Waiting on withered old hags isn't my idea of fun."

Nami scowled at the two. "Fine, then you guys go off and have your stupid adventure. I'll stay here and actually try to do something useful to what we're trying to accomplish!"

"I'll stay with you, Nami-swan!" Sanji said happily.

"Thank you, Sanji-kun," Nami said sweetly intending to make the other two men feel guilty.

"My tea!" Kasa screeched again as she hit the bottom of the umbrella on the ground.

Luffy laughed at Nami and Sanji. "Ok, you guys stay here and have fun!" he said.

Nami was about to say something back to Luffy when there was a knock at the door.

"You young 'uns are completely useless!" Kasa declared as she went over to open the door herself.

The four young pirates immediately prepared for action just in case the pirates who had come here before them were enemies.

"Welcome back," Kasa's old scratchy voice was heard.

"Thank you," a deep voice responded.

"Huh?" Luffy said. "I know that voice."

"You do?" Nami asked.

"I'm afraid there are some annoying young pests here," Kasa said, her voice getting louder. The sound of the footsteps of at least ten or more people was heard coming closer to the main living room where the Straw Hats were.

"It's no problem," the deep voice said.

Then the group of pirates led by Kasa entered the living room.

"Beckman?!" Luffy shouted in surprise.

"Luffy," Beckman replied with a nod.

"It's the Red Hair Pirates!" Nami exclaimed.

"Our luck has just taken a turn for the better," Sanji said with a laugh.

"Long time no see," Yasopp said raising his hand in greeting. "How's my boy, Usopp, doing? He's still alive I take it! Hahaha!"

"Of course he is!" Luffy laughed back. "He's pretty strong."

"I know it," Yasopp said proudly. "My boy wouldn't be anything but strong!"

"We've been trying to track you down for a long time now," Nami said to Beckman. "Luffy's got the One Piece now!"

"Yes, we heard," Beckman said. "Shanks knew that it wouldn't be long before you came to find him."

"Speaking of Shanks, where the hell is he?" Zoro asked.

"Well, if you guys are here, then you must be heading toward Raftel," Lucky Roo said after taking a bite from the bone of meat he had in his hand. "Unless you're here just for fun."

"This island isn't exactly my idea of fun," Sanji said glancing at Luffy. "But he'd probably think so."

"We've been pretty lucky this time around the Grand Line," Nami said. "First we ran into Hawkeyes on Fog Isle, and he told us to go to Largo Haven. Then we met Mr. Presto, and he told us that you guys were heading this way."

"Is that so?" Beckman said. "We had just received a message from Captain Shanks to meet him on Raftel."

"This'll be our first time going there," Yasopp said, "but you guys have already been so you're the experts."

"I wouldn't necessarily say we're experts," Nami said with a sigh. "Luffy was the only one who made it to the island last time, and we only barely got out of there alive."

"We'd better set sail as soon as possible," Beckman said. "Shanks may be one of the greatest pirates in all the seas but if he's on Raftel, it can't be said how long he can survive by himself."

Luffy nodded his head. "You're right," he said remembering all the horrors and trials he had had to face when he was there by himself the last time.

"But we need to get supplies first," Nami said. "And in order to do that, we'll need the umbrellas that you're using."

"Yes," Beckman said and started to hand over his umbrella to Luffy.

"Hold it right there, young man!" Kasa screeched. With miraculous speed and agility, she swiped the umbrella out of the Red Hair Pirate first mate's hand. "You can't just hand these over!" she said waving the umbrella around. "I'm running a business here and I don't make any exceptions. You young whippersnappers had better pay up or you're not getting a single umbrella!"

Nami immediately turned on her sweet-talk mode. "Oh, I'm so sorry, ma'am!" she said as apologetically as she could. "Of course we'll pay you!"

Zoro and Sanji looked at each other incredulously.

"But as you just heard, we're kind of in a hurry so would it be possible for you to lower the price? Hm? Just a little?" Nami clasped her hands together and tried to look as cute and innocent as possible but she had doubts whether or not that would work on a wrinkled, grumpy, old lady.

Kasa looked at Nami completely unphased. "No," she said flatly.

"Why you!" Nami bellowed.

"Whoa, Nami-san!" Sanji said as he held her back from pummeling the old lady. "Just calm down."

"We have enough money," Zoro said with a yawn. "Let's just pay up."

"WHAT?!" Nami shouted at Zoro. "This is why I'm in charge of the money and not you morons! Otherwise we'd have gone broke a million years ago! She's completely ripping us off!"

Luffy put a gentle but firm hand on Nami's shoulder.

The navigator looked up at her captain in shock.

A huge smile was on his face. "It's ok, Nami," he said. "Not many people come to this island so the old lady could use the money."

Nami's eyes widened. She hadn't thought of Kasa's well being at all. Maybe the reason why her house was in such a dilapidated state wasn't because Kasa was too old to take care of it, but maybe she just couldn't afford to fix it up. It would be incredibly expensive since she lived all the way out here, and the only ones who could fix it up were the famous Carpenter Pirates who charged no less than 10 million berries per job. As much as Nami knew that Kasa was ripping them off, it was because the old hag needed to. "Fine," Nami said finally. "We'll pay the fee."

Kasa nodded.

"We'll need seven umbrellas," Nami continued, "so that's fourteen million berries," she said with a slight sob at the number fourteen million.

"That's correct."

Nami then turned to Zoro and Sanji. "Well good thing we brought enough," she said. "Go ahead and hand it over."

The two men put down the humongous packs that they had on their backs filled with cash and pushed it over to Kasa.

"All right," Kasa said. "Take the umbrellas, but bring them back when you've finished."

"Aye aye!" Luffy said enthusiastically. He tossed one umbrella to each of his crew and then picked up four more. "I'll run these back to the ship. You guys start gathering supplies."

"Hold it, Luffy!" Nami said quickly. "You'll probably get lost so I'll go back with you."

"I guess we'll start then," Sanji said.

"Geez, why do I always get stuck with this idiot cook?" Zoro asked himself with a sniff.

"Look who's talking, marimo," Sanji growled.

"STOP ARGUING AND START LOOKING!" Nami shouted.

"Aye," the two men said quickly wanting to avoid bonks on the head.

"We'll be back!" Luffy said with a laugh. With that, he and Nami headed toward the ship.

The two walked through the electric forest in complete silence. It was the first time in quite a while that they'd been alone together. Nami had said that she would go with Luffy back to the ship out of instinct since Luffy was second only to Zoro at sucking at directions. She hadn't thought about the fact that they would then be spending a bit of time alone.

Nami watched as her rubber captain marched in front of her completely unaffected by the lightning rain. She wanted to say something but everything that came to mind seemed inappropriate for the situation they were in now. Beckman said that they needed to be as quick as possible so that they could meet with Shanks on Raftel hopefully before any harm comes to the legendary pirate captain.

At the same time, Luffy was surprisingly thinking almost the exact same thing. What could he say to Nami? As excited as he was about getting closer to finding his old mentor, he couldn't help but begin to worry again about his navigator. If they were going to Raftel, then he'd have to make extra sure that Nami was safe. Even if they had gone there before, it was the most dangerous place in all the seas. He couldn't bear the thought of something happening to her.

Luffy opened his mouth to say something, but Nami beat him to it.

"So, Luffy," Nami said as lightly as she could.

"Hm?" he said quickly and turned his head to look at her.

"We're pretty close now, huh?" Nami said with a forced laugh.

"Close?"

"To finding Shanks, I mean," Nami quickly added.

"Oh. Yeah."

"What'll you do once we find him?"

Luffy shrugged. "Give him back his hat, I guess."

"Oh, right. That hat belongs to him, doesn't it?" Nami said pointing to it.

"Yeah," Luffy said with a nod. "And now that I have the One Piece, I can keep my promise to him."

"It's too bad though," Nami said.

"What's too bad?"

"It'll be weird to see you without it."

Luffy paused. "Yeah…"

"After all these years, I'm so used to seeing you with that hat," Nami continued once she figured Luffy wasn't going to say anything else. "You think Shanks'll notice that I had to fix it about a million times?"

That made Luffy laugh. "Nah, I don't think so," he said. "You're really good at fixing it."

"Well, I should be by now!" Nami laughed as well. "You've got a knack for getting yourself into trouble so you put that hat through a lot."

"But I'll always have you to fix it up for me, right?" Luffy said with a huge grin.

Now it was Nami's turn to pause, but then a soft smile crept across her face. "Of course, Luffy," she said.

By then, the two were standing in front of their ship. They both stopped half wanting to go ahead and meet up with the others and half wanting for it to be just the two of them for a bit longer. They stood in silence for a moment both unsure of what to say to the other.

"Nami, I-"

"We should probably get going," Nami said at the same time. "The faster we get our supplies, the sooner we can go find Shanks, right?"

Luffy looked at Nami who was looking down trying to avoid eye contact with him. "Na…" he cut himself off. "Yeah, you're right," he said. "Let's go get the others."

Nami glanced up and briefly looked into her captain's eyes. "Mm," she said with a nod.


End file.
